


the kids aren't alright

by nevernevergirl



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Episode Tag, Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-03-15 02:20:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13603521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevernevergirl/pseuds/nevernevergirl
Summary: sometimes, a family is six kids who didn't want to speak to each other a week ago (and their dinosaur).A collection of missing scenes/episode tags/alternate scenes exploring the different relationships between the kids.





	1. 1x06, Chase & Nico

**Author's Note:**

> 106 missing scene, Chase and Nico have a conversation about their parents' affair. super short, not 100% sure how well this fits in with the canon timeline, i just really like chase and nico being bros!

Nico calls him, and it's fucking weird.

Chase doesn't remember the last time he talked to Nico on the phone. Maybe 8th grade, when he'd left his social studies textbook at school and needed to borrow a copy to do his homework. Hell, he can't remember the last time he talked to her at all before the last couple of weeks.

(That's a fucking lie. It's true that he's hardly talked to her in the past two years—he's avoided it. He's had to talk to her a few times, mostly in class, and he remembers every single one, because every single time all he can think is the last time we had a real conversation, Amy was alive.)

He answers, because it's been a fucking night, and they're sort of friends again, so why not.

"Hey. What's up?"

"You mean other than our parents having an affair? And your dad collapsing, and Karolina flying, and Alex being—"

"What's wrong with Wilder?" he asks, frowning.

"Nothing," she sighs. "He was just acting kind of weird when we were in my mom's office, I guess."

"Look, you know I love blaming him for shit, but. Can't say I blame him," he says, wryly. "Our whole lives are fucking weird right now. Whatever he did, it's probably just all of this crap getting to him."

"Yeah. You're probably right. How's everything at your house?"

"Weird," he says, bluntly. "My dad's, like. Acting like nothing happened. And he went straight to his lab when we got home. And he seems fine, for someone who just collapsed because of a brain tumor. What about your parents?"

"My mom didn't say a word on the ride home, except to tell my dad to shut up every time he tried to apologize." She's silent for a moment. "I guess that's understandable."

Chase snorted. "None of this is understandable. I don't get any of this."

"Really? It kind of makes sense to me," she muttered. "My mom's a bitch, and my sister's dead. Your dad's an asshole."

Chase blinks.

"Have you always been this fucking blunt, Nic?"

"Pretty sure that comes with the dead sister territory."

"Jesus," he mutters, running a hand through his hair. "He's been better. My dad, I mean. We were working together the other night, he helped me figure out how to get the Fistigons working."

"Oh my God, that's not seriously what you're calling them, is it?"

Chase laughs. "Asshole," he mutters.

"I'm just saying. It sounds like something off of one of Alex's lame video games." She's quiet for a second, then he hears her take a deep breath. "My mom's been better, too. I mean, sort of. She was teaching me how to use the staff, and it was kind of....okay."

"This is so fucked up," he says, quietly.

"It's been fucked up for a long time, Chase. Probably longer than we know," she sighs. "What do they expect us to do? Are they like, running off together?"

Chase makes a face. "God. That's weird."

"We could be step-siblings," she says, laughing, because it's fucking ridiculous.

"Imagine that Thanksgiving."

"No thanks, I've had enough nightmares lately."

"My mom is pretty good with dessert, though."

"If you start bragging about the cake at your 10th birthday party again, I'm hanging up on you, Stein."

"Red velvet and ice cream—"

"Molly literally threw up from the sugar intake."

"Molly was seven and has no impulse control."

Nico laughs, and then she's quiet for a moment.

"At least it was your mom," she mumbles. "I mean. At least it's not just me."

He snorted a little. "Nice."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do," he sighs.

"Listen, I should go," she says, quietly. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," he says. "See you tomorrow."


	2. 1x08, Chase & Gert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1x08 alternate scene: Gert doesn't miss Chase's call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this a couple of months ago for my friend's birthday, but it was super short, so i'd originally planned to come back to it and see if I could fit into a larger fic, but I have a lot of little bits and pieces of alternate scenes/missing scenes/episode tags, so I'll be adding them all to this fic! honestly there's no real point to this one, I just wanted to play with how Gert would have handled getting that phone call.

Gert's heading to her parents' lab to get the dinosaur (!) when her ringtone goes off. It makes her jump at first, and then scowl because she's kind of assuming it's Dale and Stacey, ready to bribe her with take out in exchange for her _sister_. Then she stops, because what if it's Molly?

 

She grabs for the phone, her breath caught in her throat.

 

It's Chase.

 

For a second, she gets this stupid feeling in her chest, that giddy-floaty-unthinking Molly Ringwald movie feeling, and it's so _dumb_ , with everything that's happened in the past week—with everything that's happened _tonight._

 

And then she remembers that Chase doesn't just call her, that he hasn't just called her in years. It's probably about their parents. She's going to answer the phone, and not only is he not going to be _just calling her_ , something's probably just gotten even worse, and _look_ , she can handle Chase not calling her because she's been handling that for a long time and she might be completely fucking stupid about him but she's not _that_ pathetic, you know? But she's not sure she can handle one more thing going wrong right at this moment.

 

She hesitates. If she waits a second, it'll go to her voicemail.

 

(God, her _voicemail._ Is he going to think it's dumb? It's probably dumb. Fuck.)

 

She takes a deep breath and answers the phone.

 

"Hey, Chase," she says. Casually. So casual. "What's up?"

 

There's no answer for a second, and it's long enough for her stomach to flip with a scenario she hadn't considered–he just dropped his phone or dialed her by accident or _fuck_ what if he's back with his shitty friends and this is a fucking prank, holy shit she's going to have to murder him, maybe she can ask her parents for tips–

 

"Hey," he says, _finally_ , and his voice sounds weird. Quiet, and like...he's been crying?

 

Back to theory #2, then. Fuck.

 

"What's going on?" she asks, trying to push back all the little baby disaster scenarios currently being conceived in her head. "Are you okay?"

 

"It's my dad," he says, his voice shaking in a way that makes her skin buzz. "He's hurt. I mean, we both are, but he's definitely worse."

 

"What do you mean, you're hurt?" Her voice definitely is not pitching up, absolutely not, don't be ridiculous.

 

"My dad's worse," he repeats.

 

"Yeah, that tells me nothing," she takes a deep breath. "What happened, Chase?"

 

"I don't know," he says, a little frantically. "I was in the lab, because he hasn't cared lately, except this time he did, and he freaked, and picked up the fistigons, and then my mom had a fucking gun—"

 

" _What_?"

 

"I don't know!" he repeats. She can picture him right now— he's probably pacing and tugging at his hair, and she's willing to bet he's drinking. "But now he's hurt, and Pride's here?"

 

"Holy shit."

 

"Yeah," he mutters. "Hey, can you come over?"

 

Gert is 95 percent sure her heart just stopped.

 

"I really don't want to be alone right now," he rambles. "Fuck. I shouldn't be dragging you into this, nevermi—"

 

"I'm coming," she blurts, and she could fucking kick herself, but she can hear Chase sigh in relief. "Do you want me to call everyone else?"

 

"Please don't," he mumbles. She tries not to think too hard about what _that_ means, because it's really, really not the time, she _knows_ that. But also, like..........he wants  _her,_ holy shit.

 

"Okay," she says, quietly. "Give me a few minutes. Stay out of Pride's way, okay?"

 

"Yeah," he mumbles. "Okay. Thank you."

 

"Anytime."

 

She doesn't even really hate herself for meaning it.


	3. Chase & Alex, post s1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post S1. Alex and Chase Do Their Best™ on a food run, or; this found family has no boundaries. Featuring gentle group teasing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk somehow my nice lil headcanon about the kids platonically holding hands and touching casually for tactile comfort turned into 'lol pda as a distraction.' also, let alex and chase interact nicely 2k18, it's what rhenzy and gregg Deserve.

"Okay, am I being paranoid, or is that guy looking at us?"

 

Alex frowns, grabbing the sack of food off the counter and paying the cashier. They'd been pretty careful this week, and they hadn't eaten anything not packaged in a wrapper for days, so they'd voted (unanimously, for once) on a McDonald's splurge. 

 

If they got caught because Karolina wanted chicken nuggets, he wasn't ever going to forgive her. Probably. 

 

"What guy?" he asks, as calmly as possible. Chase tilts his head to the left just slightly. 

 

"Behind us. In the first booth. Jesus, Alex, don't  _ look _ ."

 

"I'm not!" He hisses, shaking his head. "Ok, looking at us like our parents hired him or like he recognizes us from the news?"

 

"How am I supposed to know?" Chase makes a face, gripping his bag with his gear in it a little tighter. "The second one, maybe? He just keeps looking up."

 

"Like maybe he's trying to place where he's seen us," he sighs. "Okay, okay. We need to get out of here without drawing attention to the girls. So just. Walk. Normally."

 

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." Chase nods, turning toward the door. Alex glances back before following. You know. Casually.

 

"Chase," he murmurs, following close on his heels out the door. "He just got up." 

 

Chase looks at him, panicked for a moment, then raises his eyebrows. "Okay. I have a plan."

 

"What kind of..."

 

Chase grabs his wrist, yanking him forward. He reaches a hand up to Alex's chin, tilting his chin up and kissing him. It takes maybe half a second to register, but Alex remembers to kiss back.  

 

When they break away, no one's looking. Chase grins triumphantly.

 

"PDA, bro. Works every time."

 

Alex rolls his eyes and bumps Chase's shoulder with his own. "Okay, fine. That was a decent idea. For once."

 

"Damn right."

 

They take their time walking across the parking lot to the van, holding hands loosely. 

 

The second they're inside with the doors closed, Nico lets out a loud cat call while Karolina cheers and Molly doubles over, laughing.

 

"Not bad," Gert says, grinning. "7 out of 10, maybe?"

 

"Oh, come on," Chase rolls his eyes, digging through the paper bag and beginning to hand out fries as Alex starts the van. "I did the chin tilt. You love the chin tilt."

 

"On me, yeah, but as a visual, it's only okay. You can have an extra point if there was tongue."

 

"Isn't this, like, exploitative?" Alex complains, half-heartedly. 

 

"We're reversing the male gaze. Right?" Nico glances at Gert.

 

"Close enough," she shrugs. 

 

Molly climbs over her sister the front of the van, leaning in between the front seats. 

 

"You remembered no pickles, right?"

 

"Of course, Molls. Karo, catch," Chase says, tossing her a carton of nuggets as Molly digs threw the bag.

 

"Could you guys at least wait until I back up to start throwing food? I just risked my life for the dollar menu."

 

"Hey, I'm not that bad of a kisser," Chase jokes.

 

"He's not," Gert, calls out, stealing one of Nico's fries and getting a smack on the hand for her efforts. 

 

"We love you too, Alex," Karolina beams, light and teasing and honest.

 

"Yeah, yeah," Alex says, grinning as he begins to drive. 


	4. 1x07, Chase & Gert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1x07. Chase and Gert talk on the way to class after Molly tells the group Catherine Wilder knows what she saw. Chase takes a picture.

"Hey."

Gert rolled her eyes, grabbing a book out of her locker and shoving it into her bag. If she was a little aggressive about it, that was totally on accident.

"Hey yourself," she grumbled. "Where's Karolina?"

Chase frowned. "I think she went after Molly?"

Gert shut her locker. Definitely aggressively, but whatever. "Great," she muttered, shouldering her bag. Chase continued to frown.

"Why did you ask that?"

"Why did I ask what?"

"About Karolina," he said, almost impatiently. Gert looked up at him and shrugged.

"She was with you before I went to my locker.”

"So were Alex and Nico. You didn't ask about them."

"You didn't kiss Alex and Nico last night," she grumbled. "As far as I know."

"How do you know about that?" he asked, quickly. "Did Karolina tell you?"

She glanced at him, carefully, trying to figure out if he wanted Karolina to tell her. And if he did, what the hell would that even mean?

"No," she said, evenly. "Molly saw you guys. Apparently spilling secrets is her thing now," she muttered.

Chase sighed. "She's just a kid. Karolina's probably right, we shouldn't be too hard on her."

"Of course Karolina’s right," Gert muttered. "Molly's 14. She knows she should have at least told us. I'll talk to her later, she'll be fine," Gert shook her head. "So, are you like, dating now?"

Chase made a face. "What?"

"You and Karolina. Not that it matters. I just want to know how much PDA I'm going to have to deal with while we’re trying to get our parents arrested.

"We're not dating," he rolled his eyes. "I've barely talked to her since last night."

"Right."

"Everything got kind of crazy right after that," he muttered.

"Oh," she said, quietly, biting her lip. "Right. Are you, um. Okay?"

"I guess," he shrugs. "This guy from Karolina’s church was there, and gave my dad some weird treatment? And this morning, Dad was.....weird."

Gert frowns. "Weird how?"

"He was acting like nothing happened with my mom. And he remembered open house was tonight. He never comes to that shit."

"Yeah, I remember," she said, quietly. "Sorry."

Chase shrugged. "I guess I'm just not really thinking about Karolina right now."

Gert knew he didn't mean anything she wanted him to mean by that, but her stomach did a little flip anyway.

"Yeah. I guess that makes sense."

She stopped, because somehow, without realizing it, she'd managed to let Chase walk her to first period. She bit her lip.

"I, um. Have chemistry."

He nodded quickly. "Yeah. Um. Yeah, of course. I'll see you later? Lunch?"

She held back the urge to point out that three days ago, he'd said that was weird, because they weren't friends. Whatever. Three days ago, he was still on the lacrosse team.

"Yeah. Lunch," she nodded.

He started to pull away, then stopped for a second, giving her a weird look.

"What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. Just, um," he ducked his head a little, "You did your hair kind of different today, right?"

She frowned, tucking the little braid behind her ear. "Um. Yeah, I guess. A little."

"Looks nice," he mumbled, then grins, holding up his phone. "Hey, I don't have a contact pic for you on my phone."

"Oh my God."

"What? You've texted me, like, 50 times this week—"

"Alex was kidnapped, you asshole."

"And I don't have a picture of you, and it looks weird on my phone. You're messing up my vibe, Yorkes," he grinned.

"You're so dumb, what the hell," she muttered, but smiled a little anyway

"I guess I could use that one from 7th grade, with the Doritos?”  
"  
"Fuck off. There's no way you still have that."

"Try me," he grinned.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine."

She tried not to smile too much when he held up his phone.


	5. Nico, Gert, & Alex, post s1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post S1, Pride takes the search for their children to national television. Indulgent angst + Nico being soft for her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is technically an outtake from my s2 fic I'm Not Young Enough to Know Everything, which definitely isn't abandoned, I've just written Nico's chapter roughly 45968749586798 times (it's coming soon, I promise!). This is a deleted bit that doesn't really fit that chapter anymore, but I liked the angst, so I'm posting it here.

There's a fine line between staying under the radar and staying informed enough to actually be able to stay under the radar. Nico's not sure how good they are at actually walking the line, but they're trying their best.

 

They're mostly laying low, because it hasn't been long since they broke into their old houses for the essentials: her staff, a laptop, a bottle of Gert's anxiety meds. It had been a risk, and they're all doubly paranoid now, but she feels better knowing she has magic back on her side. They've instituted a groups of three in public rule, for now: enough for safety in numbers, but not enough to raise suspicion.

 

So she's in a Starbucks somewhere in northern California sharing a tall plain coffee with Gert while Alex takes advantage of the free wi-fi. If she ignores the amount of sugar Gert added, it almost feels normal. 

 

"Uh oh," Alex says, his eyes widening. Her heart clenches. Gert stands up, her chair squeaking against the tile floor as she scrambles over.

 

"What? What's going on?"

 

"I think we're finally going to make national news," he mutters, handing an earbud to each of them and pressing play on a video.

 

Dale and Stacey Yorkes are on the screen; Dale has his arm around Stacey, looking somber and red eyed, while Stacey sobs into the reporter's mic, clutching Molly's old stuffed elephant. Nico wonders if this was her mom's idea; they look really convincingly sad on camera. Even after what happened at the Pride gala, she can't picture Tina Minoru breaking down on Good Morning America like that.

 

"Is there anything you'd like your daughters to know if they see this, Mr. and Mrs. Yorkes?"

 

"Gert, honey, whatever you done, whatever's happened, we'll figure it out," Dale says. It's good. People are going to believe him.

 

"We just want you and your sister home," Stacey sobs. 

 

"Turn it off," Gert says, her voice low, ripping the earbud out. Her shoulders are shaking. Nico exchanges a glance with Alex and reaches over to slam the laptop shut; she stands up and hooks her arm with Gert's, walking her outside while Alex packs up the rest of their stuff. 

 

They find an alley to duck in—it feels like they live half their lives in alleys these days—and Gert paces. Nico gets out the staff, thinking as she activates it. Figuring out that she couldn't repeat exact spells had been sort of helpful, but getting creative was rough, considering the amount of sleep she's been getting these days.

 

"See no evil, hear no evil?" she tries, sighing in relief when the air around them shimmers, nodding at Alex.

 

"Go ahead, Gert," he says, quietly. "It's safe."

 

Gert takes a deep breath, and she screams.

 

It rips through Nico, and she has to squeeze her eyes shut for a second so she doesn't cry, not when Gert needs them. Nico hates the Yorkes; she hates all of their parents all of the time, and she's so, so tired.

 

" _Assholes,_ " Gert yells, throwing her jacket at the brick wall as forcefully as she can. Nico's sort of glad this didn't happen with Chase, because he definitely would have punched it, and they definitely can't afford for him to have a broken hand right now. "I hate them! I knew they were evil, but that was  _cruel_ , and they  _know_  it!"

 

She buries her face in her hands, and her whole body is shaking. Alex wraps his arms around her, holding her close, and Nico walks over to them both, hugging Gert from behind as she leans her head against her back. They stay like that for a long moment: Gert sobbing, Alex running a hand through her hair and rocking the three of them gently, Nico burying her face against Gert's hair.

 

"Please don't tell Molly," Gert mutters. "She doesn't need to know about this."

 

"Of course not," Nico mutters. She knows Molly hates it when they do shit like this, and she gets it—Amy used to treat her with kid gloves, and it sucked. But she can sort of appreciate the gesture, now. 

 

"They're the monsters, Gert," Alex said, quietly. "You know that."

 

"Yeah," she says, her voice still shaking. "It would be nice if we weren't the only ones who knew that."

 

Alex kisses the top of her head and Nico finds her hand, gripping it tightly as the utter bullshit loneliness of Gert's words sink in.

 

These incredible people in this alley, the three amazing assholes waiting for them in the van three blocks down—they're all each other has. Entirely.

 

Yeah, it kind of sucks. But at least their one thing is something really fucking powerful.


	6. 2x09, Gert/Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> End of 209, Gert realizes she's sick like Old Lace, and Chase helps her out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just starting to dive into writing for season 2! This is super short, but I'm such a sucker for hurt/comfort, so I had to go here first.

"Gert?" Chase calls, knocking on her bedroom door lightly. "Alex and Molly got dinner."

 

Gert lets out a groan—muffled by the glass door, but definitely still a groan. Chase frowns.

 

"Gert? Are you okay? Can I come in?"

 

"Only if you don't mention food again."

 

Gert is lying on the bed in an oversized t-shirt and her underwear, with one arm flung over her eyes and what looks like his missing pair of sweats balled up next to her.

 

"Hey," he says, softly, closing the door. "What's going on?"

 

"I don't know," she says, miserably. "I was fine, and then my tongue felt weird, and eating sounds, like, the worst thing that could possibly happen to me right now. And I'm  _cold,_  and I was going to put on your stupid sweatpants because they're stupid soft _,_ but if I move I think my head is going to explode and—"

 

"Okay, okay," he murmurs, taking the pants from her gently. "Want help?"

 

She makes a noise that lands somewhere between a squeak and a snort, then sighs, nodding kind of miserably. 

 

"Do you think you caught whatever Old Lace has?" he asks, gently sliding the pants up her legs. "Lift your hips up for me, okay?"

 

She shifts slightly, letting him tug the fabric up. "Maybe. I don't know. Is that even possible? We're not even the same species."

 

"You're literally psychically linked, I don't think we can rule anything out," he sighs, brushing her hair back.

 

"Yeah," she says, quietly. "Yeah, I know. "

 

"What do you need?" he asks, softly. She bites her lip.

 

"Can you get my sweater? The big orange one, please."

 

He nods quickly, getting up just long enough to grab it. Gert tries to push herself up, wincing a little. 

 

"Hey, don't, I've got you," he murmurs, wrapping an arm around her waist and steadying her as he helps her pull her arms through the sleeves. "Better?"

 

"Mm," she nods, leaning against him. "This is worse than sixth grade," she mumbles.

 

"When you had the flu?"

 

"When you  _gave me_ the flu." 

 

"I said I was sorry," he says, and she laughs a little. He just barely manages a grin before her laugh turns into a cough; he pulls her a little closer, rubbing her back in slow, gentle circles. She catches her breath after a moment, tucking her head against his chest.

 

"Chase," she says, her voice smaller than he's ever heard it. "Chase, I don't know what's happening to us, and I'm really scared."

 

He breathes in sharply.

 

"Me too, baby," he says, playing with her hair gently. "What was that thing you said before? About being terrified together?"

 

She lifts her head just enough to look at him and cracks a small smile. 

 

"That seemed like a bigger romantic gesture when my intestines weren't eating themselves," she whispers, and Chase laughs a little, kissing the top of her head.

 

"I can send someone back out to get something for your stomach. And gatorade, maybe? Or ginger ale. That's supposed to be good for upset stomachs, right?"

 

She gave him a small he knew was sort of humoring him, because they both know this isn't an upset stomach, and ginger ale isn't going to do shit. He takes her hand, lacing their fingers together. 

 

"You know what? Ginger ale sounds amazing right now," she says, quietly, squeezing his hand.

 

God, he loves her so much it hurts.

 

He presses a kiss to the top of her head. "I'll go talk to Alex. And check on Lace. Maybe you can try taking a nap?

 

She nods , and he gently pulls her away from him, helping her settle back against the mattress. He kisses her forehead one more time before standing up.

 

"Chase? Thank you."

 

He smiles. "Of course."


End file.
